05.13.07

I Really Ought to Take Up Knitting

Posted in Finished Objects, General at 8:53 pm by Rachel

Seeing as I have a knitting blog and all, that is. Odd to have a knitting blog and to never do any knitting. Well, except for socks. Yawn.

All work and no knitting makes Lickety Knit a very dull blog, and, unfortunately, we here at Lickety Knit are all about work these days. As I mentioned before, this is my busiest stretch at my day job, and I also have a freelance job that’s peaking at the same time (at the end of this month). By the way, a big old kiss on the lips to everyone who suggested in a previous post that perhaps this (unintentionally) mysterious freelance job had to do with a Lickety Knit book project. How I wish. Sadly, it’s just plain old extra work for extra pay. (Although those of you with ties to the needle arts publishing industry who think 248 pages of self-deprecating excuses about my knitting lameness would be a runaway hit, feel free to leave a comment.)

As an aside, the need for extra pay is because come September, my husband is leaving his decade-long career as a software engineer and going back to graduate school full time to get his master’s degree in public policy. (Someone has to save the world — it may as well be my smart and principled husband.) This aside is not at all knitting-related, or even really related to this post, but it seems odd not to let at least a little of my real life onto the blog, and this is a pretty big thing for us.

Aaanyway, because I have been so busy with work, pretty much the only knitting I’ve been doing has been socks, because I can do them while traveling or when I know I shouldn’t be knitting but convince myself that a round or two (or 25) on a sock doesn’t count. The result? My third, fourth, and fifth pairs of socks of 2007.

I still maintain that socks, while wonderful knitting projects, don’t make for good blog substance unless they are extra impressive in some way, which these are not. So I’ll just unceremoniously throw out the quick details and be done with it. Top to bottom: Cable Rib Socks (like Laura’s) from Favorite Socks in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, colorway Serengeti); plain stockinette socks in Trekking XXL, color 109; Go with the Flow socks from Favorite Socks in an unknown color of Artyarns Ultramerino 8, one of the unsung heroes of the sock yarn world. All knit on the same set of 5-inch Clover bamboo 2.25 mm needles.

Okay, so I admit that that actually doesn’t look like a bad amount of knitting. But given that it’s three months’ worth, and that this was supposed to be the Year of Sweaters, it’s not exactly a great accomplishment. I had such high hopes. Last year, when I cast on for the Gatsby Girl Pullover in a petal-pink yarn, I had the idea that I would finish the sweater in time to model it in front of the spectacular weeping cherry tree in our yard that blooms this time of year. Well. Um.

I have great hopes that this summer will bring much more knitting, because otherwise I’ll have to leave the knitblog world and join the boringprattleblog world (comments about my current dual citizenship should be kept to yourselves).

Oh, here’s a non-sequitor: a number of you asked me a couple posts ago why I was trying to give up Knit Picks. The reason is local yarn stores. One of my favorite LYSs (Ewe’ll Love It in Nashua, New Hampshire) has been really struggling to stay afloat, and a new knitting store just opened within walking distance of my house. I really want these shops — and most LYSs, frankly — to survive, and I realized that buying too much of my yarn from Knit Picks does nothing to further that possibility. So, while I have nothing at all against Knit Picks (and haven’t really even sworn them off completely), I’m going to try to make sure my knitting dollars go to LYSs as often as possible, even if it means buying less yarn overall for budget reasons. This is just my personal decision; I’m not embarking on a campaign to turn everyone away from Knit Picks, because the fact is they offer great products for amazing prices. I just think we’d all be sad of LYSs disappeared, so I think it’s important to balance rather than always going for the least expensive option, if your circumstances allow it.

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05.02.07

Niftyness

Posted in General at 9:22 am by Rachel

Regular blog post to come soon…eventually…well, someday, anyway, but in the meantime, a quick alert to some knitting-related way-coolness on the Web: Ravelry.com.

Frecklegirl and her husband have created a site for knitters and crocheters that has the potential to be a central repository for the massive amount of information about patterns, yarns, and knitters that exists in the minds of crafters throughout the blogiverse. In addition to this macro-level functionality, it also works on a micro scale: it has tools that you can use to organize info about your stash, needles, and projects in one orderly place. And it’s all linked up, so a yarn in your stash is a click away from the projects that other people have made with that yarn. And a pattern in your project queue is automatically linked to all the other people who have made that project and information about the substitute yarns they used. There’s also great integration with people’s blogs and Flickr photos.

I could not be making this sound any drier. (”Functionality”? “Integration”? “Macro” and “micro”? What is wrong with me?) The key piece of information I am trying to convey here is that it is very, very cool. Really well designed and honest-to-goodness useful. And it’ll get more useful as more people sign up (hint hint), and they’re still adding features, too. It is in the beta phase right now, so you should sign up right away to be mailed a beta invitation. I believe it’s going public within the next couple weeks, though, so fret not if you don’t get your invitation immediately. I think current beta testers will also be allotted some number of invitations to send out directly, so start kissing up…err, I mean, let me know if you want one (though I do respond positively to up-kissing.) All this is assuming I do, in fact, get any invitations to send, of course. (I got my invitation from the lovely and generous Elinor — thanks Elinor! — and was further clued in by the super-cool Laura.)

By the way, I completely accept the fact that I’m going to have to get smashed and start cataloging my stash or something just so I can be one of the first to describe engaging in “drunken ravelry.”

My Ravelry handle is “redflyer” — see you all there!

Update: I changed my Ravelry handle to LicketyKnit because I’m indecisive like that. I hope this doesn’t send you all into frantic chaos.

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